iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 17/10/2026

Bought a cute little IKEA KALLSUP* Bluetooth speaker today, and it works pretty nicely! I pulled it open out of curiosity because there were just two screws and I thought, why not - if it breaks I've only lost 4.99€ It has a nice little 14500 battery in it […] [Original post on front-end.social]

The view into the back of the opened speaker, showing the rear of the speaker cone, the 14500 battery (like an AA size, just higher voltage), and the edge of a PCB with a USB-C connector on it.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

Just had to tear up this rag that appeared in our postbox. It's a publication by the AfD which wasn't obvious until I looked at the social media handles on the back page. Gross. Get out of here.

A tabloid sized newspaper titled "UNS HAMBURG" (uns = us) with headline "Die Wende, jetzt!" (The turn/change, now!) and the following large quote from Dirk Nockemann: Hamburg braucht Sicherheit, Wohl-stand und Vernunft. Nicht irgendwann. Jetzt.

Translated: Hamburg needs security, prosperity, and common sense. Not sometime in the future. Now.

There's also some racist and general rightward nonsense on there about Islam and criminality. All the usual bullshit.

The same bullshit paper torn up in the bottom of our paper recycling bin.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

No better time to organise some stickers than on a long train ride...

A close up of the right hand page, as described in previous picture.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

Heydon doing very cool things with Web Audio API and custom elements #fronteersDarkMode @heydon

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

I'm on a different train line now. Maybe fewer pickpockets. Sadly no working Wifi in de trein though. (I'm so sorry, sort of, to Nederlands people, but your language reads like someone mixing German, Danish and English all together and it comes out adorable somehow.)

One of the available WiFi access points is called "Wifi in de trein" and says "Saved / No internet access"

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

@yatil As a halfway house I put up a big new noticeboard to hang up the prints, so I can start to mentally picture them together before I stick them on an album page. The album I've ordered is one with screws holding the pages in, so you can add or remove or rearrange pages, which is handy :)

A photo of our big felt noticeboard at home, to which a number of postcards and photos are clipped using mini wooden clothes pegs that have a pin sticking out the back.

Most are family photos, with scribbles added over the faces digitally before posting.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

So after knooking (lol) up a new scarf for my youngest, I've pulled out an old project which is just an excuse to sit and crochet without trying to decide what to make or pay attention to row counts or stitch types or increases and decreases. A big […] [Original post on front-end.social]

Close up of a crochet hook being used in the Tunisian crochet style, where loops are kept on the hook in one direction.

Undulating waves of the blanket - a mix of all sorts of colours including neon yellow somehow ends up looking earthy. The Tunisian crochet simple stitch makes a nice ribbed effect across each row.

The whole work as it currently stands seen from above with ripples in it. It's probably about 1 metre across and 60cm tall.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026

If anyone's wondering about getting one of those little photo-specific printers - do it. Received mine today and have been testing it this afternoon, and I already love the thing! It's a Canon SELPHY CP1500. Other makes and models are available. I've […] [Original post on front-end.social]

A photo of a sunflower head in full bloom, golden yellow petals against a blue sky with fluffy clouds, almost a picture-book perfect photo.

The photo is being held in a mini clothes peg at the top, which is itself pinned into a beige felt noticeboard.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2026

Took these photos with @maique in mind, when we were in Bristol, UK this summer:

A dank alleyway between two buildings where some broken furniture has been left. The walls are covered in huge graffiti tags. A mattress and some broken up sofa parts lean up against a wall with some text sprayed onto them.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2026

Just took delivery of some new low price specs (I use Firmoo, not advertising for them). Decided I could do with deeper ones to give more space to the distance and reading sections of the lenses. Also these ones had a cute accessory!

Selfie wearing previous rounded rectangular spectacles, with lenses wider than they are tall.

Selfie wearing new more square spectacles - still red frames, if not so bright red. I look a little geekier and owlish maybe but it's not bad.

I'm smiling, and holding what looks like another thin pair of glasses at the top of the new specs.

Having let the thin pair fall - I look much cooler - with the magnetic clip-on sunglasses lenses in place.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/08/2026

And that red-into-yellow petalled one was looking very pretty that day too:

A sunflower with a big rounded almost hemispherical dark brown center is seem from the side. The petals start red towards the center and are yellow towards the ends. The effect is nicely flamey.

The same sunflower head seen straight on, glistening with raindrops and gently backlit by evening sun.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/08/2026

Oooh I'm behind. Just 3 days after taking that photo, the smallest one opened:

A wide shot of the area we planted the sunflowers - the previous red-centred one is seen on the left. Next to it is a tall plant that hasn't yet come to a head. Down nearly in the undergrowth peeks out a smaller yellow sunflower.

A close up of the yellow sunflower. It has long petals with a smaller centre. It is glistening with raindrops. Behind it is a thicket of pink mallow with seed pods.

The top of the tall sunflower plant. There is a hint that the start of a flower bud may be forming in the middle.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2026

Started watching Dune part 2, and in Javier Bardem's Stilgar I keep seeing Oliver Reed - he was much older when he played the slaver Proximo in Gladiator, but I can't push it away. Maybe it's Proximo mixed with Bill Sykes (Oliver! The musical) from his younger days.

Screenshot from an image search.

On the left, Javier as Stilgar with a jovial expression, dark hair, bearded, stillsuit nose clip coming from his nostrils.

On the right, Oliver Reed has a menacing expression. He's wearing something presumably from the seventies with huge overlapping collars. He's got black leather gloves on and is resting a long knife along the side of his face, almost replicating the line of Stilgar's stillsuit nose tube.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/08/2026

@Edent Oh interesting! We have tons of them in Hamburg, they seem to favour a specific plant this time of year:

A veritable herd of Firebugs congregating on the dried seed pods (I think) of a pink mallow plant.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/08/2026

Enjoy a short video of the band and dancers during Barefootin', and the band - Bun Jon and the Big Jive - messing around during "Sixteen Tons" Video at: photos.app.goo.gl/JE3ewtWTT42svYrf9

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2026

Eclipse 2026 done! Back in 1999 I was in Cornwall, England, specifically because of the total eclipse. It was completely overcast where I was, and even under the path of totality it didn't feel like it got that dark. I do remember all the birds reacting […] [Original post on front-end.social]

Sara posing in her super stylish sun-gazing cardboard specs.

The actually pretty excellent pinhole projection of the eclipse we saw, due to the small string holes in a bedroom's Venetian blinds. A vertical row of crescent suns, now mostly blocked by a moon, shining against a wall. A child's hand is pointing at the first of 12 images.

A moody deep red toned photo of the crescent sun taken through one of the foiled cardboard glasses. The sun's crescent is very blurry and blown out. You can see wispy clouds around it, and the local trees under and around it.

Another attempt at photographing the sun through the glasses. The brightness is turned way down, making the crescent a little sharper. Hints of the clouds are faintly visible, and the shape is a little rough because of tree branches in the way.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/08/2026

This would be a good place to anonymously make all of your grievances or joys about the development industry public: survey.devographics.com/survey/stat…

Screenshot of one particular question in the State of Devs survey:

What else would you like to add regarding to your general outlook about AI?

My answer in the text field: "I'm tired."

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/08/2026

The style of the frames is a bit boring, squareish and grey. Not hugely adaptable, I can't bend the arms to fit my head or ears, though they do come with some rubber nubbin things I can add to them. They are also a little wide for my face and head, you can […] [Original post on front-end.social]

Selfie of Sara taken in a mirror, she is wearing the cheap varifocals with colour transition, though here they're still clear. She looks sort of "eh, not bad" in her expression.

Selfie outside in bright light but with sun behind cloud. The lenses have darkened a little.

Now in full afternoon sunshine, facing sun. Lenses not very dark, but a touch darker.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/07/2026

RE: front-end.social/@sarajw/1152213955… So after my frustration with not being able to get myself some new cheaper varifocal specs in the UK, I went back to a pair I ordered online last autumn. Welp, it still felt like the higher levels of […] [Original post on front-end.social]

A close up of the nose supports on my plastic glasses. The surfaces that rest on the nose are now matte instead of shiny, and less deeply red, where I've filed away some material.

Adjusting this on metal frames would have been easier, as then the nose pads sit on little bendable arms.

A selfie of me wearing these filed red glasses, that look much like my usual red glasses. I always seem to have one eye open more than the other when I pose for a photo! Either way the glasses are sitting fine on my face, and I look relaxed and happy.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/07/2026

We may never have seen that flower in its full glory, as we then went away for two weeks. But on our arrival home, a second flower has opened 🌻

A fully open sunflower which has unusual colouring - the centre is dark blackish brown, then the petals starting from the centre have a deep mulberry red colour, ending up in a light peachy yellow at the tips.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/07/2026

Bristol boxkite pilot be like "heard you were talking shit"

Wide shot of the entryway ceiling of the Bristol Museum, from which an early biplane made of canvas and wood is suspended. A mannequin dressed in period costume is seated at the front of the main wings (the engine is behind him).

A close up of the mannequin, who has a very judgemental looking staring expression on his face. He also has a magnificent moustache and is wearing a newsboy cap and natty cream coloured scarf.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/07/2026

Oh gosh I never updated! They got big and got planted out into our meadow area! Three are very tall, one is quite short - they are different varieties, not all the standard giant sunflower. One of them has a kink in the stem because it was blown over, and […] [Original post on front-end.social]

Four sunflower plants in separate pots, supported with sticks, in front of a long thin box with vegetable plants in it. They are all on the balcony floor.

Three tall sunflower plants, surrounded with all manner of wildflowers next to garden fence, slowly growing their flower buds. The fourth one is there but too short to be seen.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/07/2026

Despite being pretty lefty I'm a boat person at heart. I don't have enough money or time lying around to spend much time on boats, and both my parents have sold theirs - dad had a houseboat in the Stockholm archipelago aka. "skärgården", mum had a narrow […] [Original post on front-end.social]

A shot of Sara's feet with classic brown deck shoes on over white socks. They're a bit splotchy looking because I've already been dousing them with water and putting shoe stretchers in them to widen them. When they're fully broken in I'll probably wear them barefoot, like the fake yachtie I am.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/07/2026

I guess it's of some comfort to know these things don't know huge amounts about me, and what they do know is relatively vague and limited to only one of the models. What Claude Opus had to say was something about python and scientific computing, so that's […] [Original post on front-end.social]

An image made up of retro pixelated text and graphic borders:

Sara Joy
Developer advocate and engineer

95 strength · Top 65%

Gemini 3.1 Lite says:
"A developer advocate and software engineer known for her work in web development, accessibility, and technical content creation."

There is a list of 13 AI model names with bars against them, only two of which have some colour - Claude opus 4.8's bar is one fifth full, Gemini 3.1 Lite's is around nine tenths full.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/06/2026

Ahhh, it's cooled down outside to just under the temperature of the attic room, time to fling open the window. 💀

A small internal/external thermometer showing 28.3°C outside and 28.8°C inside.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/06/2026

Apparently I did very well today at 4 × 3: 4 × 3 24 June 2026 176 points • No mistakes Purple First +15 Reverse Rainbow +30 Sub-90s bonus! +30 💎 1-day streak +1 🟪🌟🟪 🟦🟦🌟 🟩🌟🟩 🌟🟨🟨 hankgreen.com/fourbythree

4 × 3 grid game image with the same information as seen in post, plus a colourful grid of 12 squares, slightly ironically placed in 3 columns of 4 instead of 4 columns of 3.

Also contains tagline "four categories - three words - one shared"

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/06/2026

Dear ladybird (or ladybug, I guess) larvae, while I am genuinely delighted that you feel safe enough to pupate around my home, I would ask that you choose somewhere more practical than the e-bike cover. Thank you. (also when you're ready please go find all […] [Original post on front-end.social]

A recently emerged adult ladybird beetle resting next to its now empty pupa. It is situated on the mortar between two bricks, by a door frame.

A pupa attached to some black nylon. It may have been irritated by the movement of the bike cover, because it has raised its body up. Blurred out in the background is another red-orange blob.

A wider view of the e-bike cover, with two pupas visible. One is attached to the outside, the other the inside.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/06/2026

I think this is the moment I got myself comfortable and leaned forward toward the crowd, before dramatically saying "I don't know" to a very valid question 😅 Normalise not knowing! It's OK! I work part time as I am largely the drop-off/pick-up parent, and […] [Original post on front-end.social]

Sara sat at the table of interrogation with Bruce Lawson, facing the audience, looking like I might be about to say something intelligent.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/06/2026

The CSS Day photos are out! See the rest at cssday.nl/2026/pix/photos I'm told I won the best T shirt on stage competition, on the first day anyway - but @html5test wore a lab coat on day 2 and I couldn't beat that 😅 I need to blog about the experience... @cssday #cssDay

Sara standing on stage next to the CSS Day podium, pulling a happy, slightly manic face and gesturing at herself. Her highly bestickered laptop is on the podium.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/06/2026

Took a selfie with the two delicious #cssDay MCs, @anarodrigues and @brucelawson I had made a joke about looking a little bit like halfway through a view transition between them 😆

A selfie of Ana, myself and Bruce together. Ana looks young, fresh and feminine with long hair, I look early middle aged and wear glasses and my hair short, Bruce has short grey hair and glasses and a cheeky smile.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/06/2026

We are standing still because a tree has fallen on the tracks somewhere along the line home. I was just given a conciliatory heart shaped biscuit. It came already broken 💔

A heart shaped biscuit broken into two pieces, held together with its packet which says "Lieblingsgast" on it.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/06/2026

The morning after the nights and days before. I am on my 10am train home. I didn't sleep so well, partly self inflicted, partly shocked awake by a huge bang outside my hotel window at 6am! I am le tired but very happy. I had a great time. Thank you for being an excellent bunch of people, #CSSDay 💜

Sara sitting in her ICE train seat. She looks a little tired but quite content. Just visible are dungaree straps, as they are most comfortable for travel!

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/06/2026

I feel like my body reacts before my emotions do - it turns on the jitters and I struggle to contain myself. And then, when I finally get the release of being on stage, the heart rate may still be high but it all feels much better.

Screenshot of today's heart rate graph in what used to be the Fitbit app - between the times of 12 and 16 (4pm), my heart rate is jumping between the moderate and vigorous zones, even briefly hitting peak. The most consistently high rates are just before 16, my talk started just before 15 (3pm).

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/06/2026

Day 1 of #CSSDay is over, I'm going to bed as all my spoons have been given away, but it's all good: I'm feeling full of heart and social battery. Before going on stage I was boggling at the genius of @rebane2001's emulation of an x86 CPU in CSS (yup!) […] [Original post on front-end.social]

Sara smiling happily in front of a big CSS Day screen which includes the comment /* That's it for today */

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/06/2026

On my way through a wet Hamburg to get on a train to a likely wet Amsterdam 😅 Despite the rain I am very happy and full of healthy nervous excitement for the-web-you-want.org and @cssday!

Sara is sat on a bus going through suburbia wearing a wet red raincoat, beside her is a wet red luggage bag, and a rucksack covered in a wet neon yellow rain cover.

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/06/2026

Throwback Thursday for me today: My youngest built a Lego robot that reminded me of the red robot from explodingdog.com (that domain is gone but there seems to be a nice explorer online at pwfisher.github.io/explodingdog) Posting a couple of my […] [Original post on front-end.social]

The blocky and stocky little red Lego robot with wide-apart set eyes. Its shoulder and hip joints are moveable. It's charming.

The explodingdog red robot, also very blocky and stocky, with large yellow eyes. It appears to be flying, and has a small stick figure sitting on its head. Handwritten block lettered text at the top says "I think I'm falling in love with you."

A vast grey sky, has some clouds rolling in from the right, and a sliver of sandy landscape along the bottom. The red robot and the stick figure, now the same size, are standing together with an arm around each other at the lower left.

The image was captioned (not visible in picture) "i loved you at all the wrong times"

The stick figure is alone and takes up most of the height of the image. They are looking down with a possibly depressed expression at their arm on the floor. In their remaining stick hand is a roll of tape. Some tape is stuck to the other shoulder, and to the top of the fallen arm. The caption was (I think) "well, that didn't work."

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Sara Joy :happy_pepper: @sarajw.front-end.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/05/2026

Posting a laptop sticker update! So hard to successfully add ALT text to this, so I'm going to see if @altbot is still awake and able to help me out...

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